What Is Azra Games’ Approach To NFTs In Gaming

Azra Games, a blockchain gaming firm, is taking a novel approach to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in Web3 games by placing more emphasis on the game’s core mechanics than on their crypto components.

Mark Otero, the founder, and CEO of Azra Games, was recently interviewed and stated that Web3 games need to be so fantastic that people adopt it for the gameplay rather than for the NFTs or its in-game tokens.

He stated this during a recent interview with Decrypt. “Web3 is not at the foreground or forefront of the players’ experience,” he remarked. “In point of fact, we need to design a game such that decent people stop caring. And they ought not be aware that they are participating in a Web3 game.”

Otero stated that players should “fall in love” with a game before the Web3 parts of the game are revealed to them. This improves the overall user experience and adds more value to the game.

Azra Games

According to him, one of the reasons that Azra obtained investment from renowned venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), NFX, Coinbase Ventures, and Play Ventures was because of its one-of-a-kind idea.

Azra Games was established in 2022 by Otero, a former general manager at the global gaming company Electronic Arts. Otero launched Azra Games with the intention of developing games that include Web3 components such as NFTs and in-game tokens.

To this point, the company has been successful in raising a total of $25 million. The most recent funding round for the company took place in February of this year when it raised $10 million at a valuation that was not revealed.

The company claimed at the time that it was developing a game that would be called Legions & Legends. According to Otero, “Legions & Legends is an opportunity for us to create something with a potential new business model for a new platform,” and this opportunity presents itself through the game.

Otero is collaborating with other businesspeople like Sonny Mayugba and Travis Boudreaux at the moment. The startup has also brought on board former employees of Capital Games.

Play-to-Win Video Games Are Met With Doubt According to Otero

Otero expressed doubt over the idea of play-to-earn during a recent interview. This is a blockchain gaming mechanic in which players earn crypto tokens as incentives for fulfilling tasks, winning fights, and competing against other players.

He stated that there are several distinct types of players. In the first place, there are conventional players who are interested in the entertainment value of a game and are considered to be “intrinsically motivated” to participate in it.

However, native crypto players are driven by a variety of distinct goals. According to Otero, these gamers are frequently “extrinsically motivated,” which means that they look to make money out of playing a game in exchange for their participation.

“The gameplay, the entertainment value, and having fun have always been prioritized in our ideology. Period. Why? Because it can be maintained indefinitely.”

The statement made by Otero comes at a time when blockchain games have witnessed a significant decrease in the number of users and trade volume over the course of the past few months.

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